Friday, August 03, 2012

You know, this year, more than many years, I have a great deal of gratitude for all the folks listening on radio and watching on television.

Pitch in for a strike, one and one.

For instance, earlier this year, I learned about a soul patch, that little bit of beard.

One ball, one strike. That's a strike, one and two.

Then, of course, the great discovery. Troy Tulowitzki's hairdo. A mullet! Boy, that — that really put me in line.

So now I know about a soul patch and a mullet.

And then the other night, talked about a tweet. Only I called it a "twit." But I thought it was a twit, since it's Twitter.

A drive to the gap in left center, there's nobody there. It'll drop for a base hit, and holding with the single is Ellis.

So anyway, I'm really up to date now on Twitter. But I do think for all of you folks who are tweeting out there, we gotta get something trending.

Whoa! So maybe we ought to get something trending about A.J. Ellis. And if you do that, you know what? I'm cool. I'm really cool.

Here's Matt Kemp....

Minutes later:

Later that inning:

Five to one Dodgers, two out in the fifth inning and I am absolutely in awe. Awe!

You're looking at A.J. Ellis. Remember when I was talking about my education about the soul patch and the mullet and tweet?

And I thought, Why don't we get something trending? To be honest with you, they told me to say that. I didn't know what to say.

And I said get something trending? A.J. Ellis?

They are trending, twittering, tweeting — you name it — about A.J. Ellis all over the United States.

He's a nice boy.

Oh my.

Cabrera. Alberto Cabrera, who just came up of late....

And in the bottom of the seventh:

Manny Corpas, a veteran reliever, will now become the fourth pitcher for Chicago, facing A.J. Ellis of Twitter fame.

Manny Corpas has certainly been around. Corpas inherited fourteen runners this year; four have scored.

Manny is from Panama City in Panama. He'll be thirty, December the third. Big man, six-three, lean, about one seventy-five and a slider hit to right center and deep. On his horse and watching it go over the wall is DeJesus.

A.J. Ellis! He's really got something trending!

And later that inning:

So, one out. A.J. strapping on the gear, and the batter will be Shane Victorino. Maybe trending had something to do with it. First time in his career? Two home runs.

And in the bottom of the eighth:

That's quite an exhibition. That's a Mike Piazza kind of a night for a catcher. Two home runs and the Dodgers now breezing, and Ellis trending all across the United States. Maybe it's your energy that has done it.

One day in 1960 Scully did something on the spur of the moment that provided extraordinary evidence of his impact on his audience. It was a fairly drab game, and Scully, as is his habit, was filling in the duller moments with stories and anecdotes and revealing flashes of information. He began talking about the umpiring team, one of whom was Frank Secory. Vin leafed through the record books and cited a few bits and things about Secory. He mentioned his age and then did a double take when he noticed the date of Secory's birth. Over the microphone he said, "Well, what do you know about that? Today is Frank Secory's birthday." And because it was a dull game and because he was acutely aware, as always, that most of the people at the game were listening to him on transistors, he said, "Let's have some fun. As soon as the inning is over I'll count to three, and on three everybody yell, 'Happy birthday, Frank!' "